The ‘no make up selfie’ craze and the narcissist.

It “seems” as though Yomi Adegoke aptly named her rant on Wednesday morning even though for many she didn’t “seem” to get the content quite right. On the face of it, the ‘no makeup selfie’ movement might have “seem(ed) like narcissism”, but if only Adegoke wasn’t so quick to jump to judgment, she may have seen this campaign’s good doing propelling into six figures before penning her article, and hence she could have avoided the proverbial egg on her face. No prizes for guessing how many of us would have liked to have seen that photo on our Facebook feed today.

I was never under the impression that my photo was going to spur some distant relative into donating their life’s savings, as Adegoke sarcastically suggests, but after donating my £3 I imagined each of my nominated friends donating their £3, then each of their friends donating a further £3, and from there on in I could see that even my tiny domino was hopefully going to do some good.

As for comparing it to NekNomination, the reckless drinking craze that saw many a participant confined to a hospital bed or at worse in an early grave, the very mention is beyond ludicrous. This movement didn’t encourage irresponsible behaviour and it certainly didn’t promote doing something detrimental to the body, it was actually quite the opposite to the drinking game.

Adegoke talks about seeking sponsorship for “shirking the MAC”, but isn’t this in entirely the same vein as what many of us did on Facebook yesterday? It has as much to do with the fight for cancer as the no makeup selfie, but at its heart it still has the same good intentions. Yes it might raise more money per individual person as it would require sponsorship from many supporters, but we could argue that nowhere near as many women would take on the challenge, and therefore the overall total raised might never better the no makeup selfie’s sum.

I do, however, thank Adegoke for allowing me to take some solace in knowing that my photo was made more tolerable for her by the fact I’d inserted a fundraising link in my description. I can sleep soundly now I know I have managed to evade her further scorn on that count.

So although my tiny donation has been branded by Adegoke as an “ordinary selfie masquerading as a fundraising attempt”, mine and many others weren’t masquerading at all. And to paraphrase, what has my image of my unmade face done for the fight against cancer that my other pictures haven’t? Well as of this evening it has helped contribute towards quite a sizable donation, so I don’t think pressing the shutter was a compete waste of time.

You can read Yomi Adegoke’s original article here http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-no-makeup-selfie-craze-is-just-narcissism-masked-as-charity-9202929.html